Life On The Lagoon

Much of this day was spent sitting by a lagoon under the cooling shade of a tree, just watching the passing parade.

Watching the action was certainly entertaining as each of these feathered creatures interacted together.

Some flew off busily trying to find twigs to built or repairing their nest, while others stayed all day long in their nest, nurturing and feeding tiny babes still too small to fend for themselves. I was entertained as they climbed to the nest rim to stand in the sunshine, then gingerly began to flap their wings until they lost their footing and flopped back down into the nest again for a rest.

I also observed hungry juveniles now independent of the nest and almost grown, way too big to need mum to feed them but being rewarded for their persistence when their parent concluded they wouldn’t take no for an answer as they pecked incessantly at her beak.

In watched birds of different shapes and sizes all interacting together it was clear that they well understood their place in the pecking order, but no matter what breed they were. With males in defence of their partner and brood fighting off other male intruders, and juvenile females going on the attack or taking to flight when too many males tried to move in on them, although they were of different species, they in their behaviour, were all so much alike.

While entertained by the activities of life on the lagoon, with nothing much else to do my thoughts began to wander.

What it would be like to live that way? Then my thoughts turned to others in the animal kingdom and how simply they also spent their day. Just like these birds, an animal’s entire purpose is to be born, to mature, to survival the dangers then to find a mate, reproduce their kind, nurture them until their life is over and they fade away, leaving their offspring to repeat the cycle, doing the same activities with the same behaviours as their parents of living, surviving, reproducing and dying.

We’re taught that we’ve evolved from the apes, but does that make any sense?

Think for a moment about the life of an ape. They are born, they hunt for food, they nurture, love and fight with each other, they mate and reproduce their kind while they sit together with their kind doing little else day after day, until life for them is over and they are no more.

Imagine your life as that of an ape. Many right now are finding the confines of lockdown too hard to bare. So with that in mind, how long would you last doing nothing more than eating the same food, sitting and sleeping with each day the same as the one before, with nothing to stimulate or entertain your mind?

How long would you last just sitting doing nothing before feeling like your were going crazy? Although we follow a similar path regarding birth, reproduction and death, there are significantly differences that make us unlike all other animals, differences that can’t be denied.

We aren’t destined to follow the path of our parents or the paths of anyone else for that matter.
We aren’t here to nourish ourselves the same way as everyone else in our species with the same simple diet that we eat for lifetime.

Why are we here? What part do we play?
What’s our ultimate purpose at the end of the day?
Are we just here to exist ’til we take our last breath,
Then to fade into nothing in the hallows of death?

Like the Apes from whom we’ve apparantly evolved.
With no plan, no purpose and no problem to solve?

Why are we wrestless to make our own way?
And to seek something better, wondering if there’s another way
Believing there definitely has to be something more?
What drives us when bored to feel we need to explore

Why do you feel good when someone sees what you do
And they acknowledge your efforts, what’s important to you?
Why are we sad when affection stays away
While those around us are having everything their way?

Would I trade places with one of these
Who rest all day under jungle trees
What could be more boring than sitting around with your kind
With no challenge or puzzle to stimulate your mind?

To have no purpose than to reproduce and then die
Is not the reason for you or for I
The answer seems clear, we are different for sure
Than all birds, animals, insects on both sea and shore

When so many around me need someone to care
To gently listen when they’re ready to share
An issue that leaves them unable to cope
As we bring our story that may just give them hope!

We’re responsible to be sure that we live our life right
Then, with our right example, others end their plight
For when we learn from mistakes we show others the way
To a better way out through the words that we say

And in our kindness we ease another’s distress
And they’re glad that we showed them a way without stress

So why are we here, what’s our purpose in life? What is our reason for being?’

Unlike all others at the dawn of creation, the Bible says:
We were made in God’s own image:
We have become his poetry, a re-created people that will fulfill the destiny he has given each of us, for we are joined to Jesus, the Anointed One. Even before we were born, God planned in advance our destiny and the good works we would do to fulfill it! Ephesians 2:10 TPT

We were blessed.
Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man. Genesis 5:2 ESV

We were given dominion over all creation.
Then God said, “ And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Genesis 1:26

Can an animal change their destiny by simply choosing another way? No, that’s what makes us so different to them. We are in charge of our destiny, we alone are the ones who determine our fate, and when we discover our purpose and step into God’s reason for our being, then we are truely complete and content.

Accepting what Jesus offers is life-changing! Please share these truths with others and may God guide you always as you step forward into your tomorrows.
2021 Elaine Costin – Capturing Sunrise / Blog